Feds fail to take basic security steps to protect private info on Alaska voter rolls

One of the big problems with the Dunleavy administration decision to give private information on every Alaska voter to the Department of Justice is that the Trump administration has failed to take proper preparations to protect the data.

The Trump administration is trying to sweep up information on all voters in every state in advance of the 2026 elections. Most states have refused to go along with the transfer of private information that is not available to those who check voter rolls. But Alaska agreed to hand over the data without security guarantees.

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Dermot Cole Comments
Release of private Alaska voter info plays into Trump plan for national voter database

Under state law a voter’s age, Social Security number, driver’s license number, identification number, place of birth and signature are confidential.

Other states and at least three federal courts have recognized that the federal government does not have a right to such information. But not Alaska. The Dunleavy administration folded.

The Trump administration has now sued 29 states, all but 5 led by Democrats, for refusing to hand over private voter data.

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AGDC boss claims he is 98 percent sure gas line will be built

If Alaska utilities trust Frank Richards, the president of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, they will abandon all costly plans to import natural gas because he is confident that a gas pipeline will be built.

“I put my confidence level at 98 percent,” Richards told the Senate Resources Committee this past week.

So it’s a sure thing. Someone should have asked if he’d be willing to bet his paycheck on that prediction. Richards is again at the top of the pay scale in state government, earning a total of $527,764 last year.

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Glenfarne and AGDC keep internal governance details secret

The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation says it cannot reveal the governance details of the entity it set up to pursue the gas line because it is a minority partner with 25 percent of the project, while Glenfarne owns 75 percent.

Sen. Cathy Giessel asked AGDC to request Glenfarne to provide the Legislature with redacted versions of its agreements with AGDC.

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Dermot Cole Comments
UA Board of Regents demands secrecy in presidential search

The University of Alaska Board of Regents has adopted a plan to prevent the general public from knowing the identities of finalists for the UA presidency.

This means that many people with an interest in the future of Alaska’s university will be prohibited from knowing anything about the three-to-five finalists the presidential search committee plans to name in April.

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Dermot Cole Comments
Republicans try to bury One Big Beautiful Bill Act name

Sen. Dan Sullivan is trying to rewrite history about the Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act, pretending that a 25-page form letter his office unleashed on July 28, 2025 didn’t use the letters OBBBA 101 times, and that he was already calling it the Working Families Tax Cuts Act then.

The Sullivan letter was rewritten in mid-November to erase all evidence of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act name, keeping the July 28 date and substituting the letters WFTCA in 101 places.

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